we're actually in rome now, got here this morning about six plus. france was a total transport hazard, from the internal trains to the connection to rome.
to paris we took the eurostar, which was the only smooth journey we had - the seats were nice and comfortable. within paris, the metro was a Mess and in the end we just walked like mad. we had to make a reservation for the train to nice, which according to the eurail booklet can be made at ANY train station. so we happily went to some metro station where they said non, non, must book at rer! so okay we metro-ed to austerlitz, and went to the sncf office BUT gay shits said we had to go to gare du lyon! by the way reservations must be made before eight and it was like seven thirty at that time.. so we thought maybe we should just take a risk and not reserve. luckily we happened to chat with some other travellers who told us the trains from paris to nice are very likely to be full, so we had to go to gare du lyon station to book!! time check: seven forty eight. velda, donald and i were sent to sprint across this huge bridge connecting the stations (almost as long as the sentosa bridge!!!!) and ran ran ran all the way to the booking counter. so YAY! we managed to reserve seats on the next train (we wanted the nine thirty four, but got the eleven fifty). when the next day came, we realised we had no idea which platform the train was going to leave from, just a number between five and twenty three. O.O the display board didn't hint at the platform at all, and the train was actually delayed but they didn't announce anything so T.T understand! somehow we managed to get onto the train and went to nice with a lady and nice dog. in nice, we decided we must Learn From Previous Experiences and reserve the seats once we arrived, but the reservation office had closed for the day. so nevermind, we thought, come back tmr. BUT the next morning, early in the morning, velda and i went down to the train station to find that.. THE RESERVATION OFFICE WAS ON STRIKE and we couldn't reserve tickets at all. T.T!!!!!! the people there told us we had to go to ventimiglia in italy(?!!!) to make the reservation, but because we were too adventurous we decided to just screw it and jump onto the train!! heehee. originally we meant to train to venice then connect to rome from there, but because we are so blessed, we managed to jump onto a train that went directly to rome!!!! and we all managed to sit together and not get chased off!!! YAY! so this is the story of horrible french transport. please note if you ever decide to visit. (vel would like to say that even though it sounds very exciting and fun it was really rather horrible and humjifying esp if you don't want to sleep in smelly train corridor)
france itself was not so bad, the eiffel tower, which we summitted, had the most magnificent view!!! blinking lights and everything. SUPER CHIO!!! (: (: (: we also visited the louvre, where we had fun seeking the mona lisa and the elusive inverted pyramid. look at our photos (to be posted) and see kelven and donald kneeling at the rose line!!! (: hahaa da vinci code pls. the other paintings and sculptures were beautiful too. very nice afternoon we spent there. the notre dame cathedral has a super duper nice interior, and we took ten million billion photos (: i attended the ascension mass at the cathedral, during which i basically stoned and guessed at the meanings of everything. but it was quite an experience, really. we saw the arc de triumphe and walked champs de elysees.. touristy stuff (: ohohoh! we met kelven's sis kelly for dinner at this really nice french restaurant, where donald fell in love with soupe de poisson and bravely attempted to eat pig intestines (which we thought were pork ribs when we ordered) hahaa. and we tested the super hot mustard which was more like wasabi than anything else. fun!!
okay so enough about paris, vel says she'll write about our hotel balladins adventures.
nice was nice. pun or no pun. like, seriously. we climbed this waterfall thing from where we had a panoramic view of nice, which was totally gorgeous!!!! (and weight losing) the flower market (marche aux fleurs (;) was really pretty too. but most of our time we spent (when not in search for food) walking along the coast and some of us went swimming in the ice cold sea. oooh. didn't really want to leave nice, but with the monaco grand prix and cannes film festival, we couldn't get no accommodation..
BTW!! can i please tell you i had escargot in nice!!! like, Snails. even better yet, i actually Liked it. oh my. tiff are you proud of me? hahaa okayokay enough time wasted blogging. got to explore roma!
